Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) (19 page)

Ann cleared her throat and
stepped
into the room.

“Hi, Mom!” the kids
’ voices
echoed.

“It looks like you’re having a good time,” Ann said.

“Mommy, we don’t have to leave
now
, do we?” Davey asked.

“I’m afraid so
.
It’s almost dinnertime
.
Get your stuff together.”

“But,
M
om, we want to hear more stories,” Danielle pleaded.

“I thought maybe you two would like to go to the Haunted House after dinner
,” Ann said smiling
.
“
I heard about it on the radio today but, if you’d rather stay here
… .
”
             

“Wow, can we really go?” Davey asked
.
“To
a real haunted house?”

“Well, only if we get going.”

“I want to go,” Danielle said, “but I want to hear more stories too.”

Olivia winked at Ann
.
“I’ll tell you what,” she said, “You go to the Haunted House to
night
.
That sounds like a lot of fun
.
In the meantime, I’ll think of some more stories and you two can come back soon
.
How’s that?”

“Promise?”
Davey asked.

“I promise,” Olivia said, crossing her heart.

* * * *

It was dark outside by the time Ann and the kids finished dinner and walked out the door.

“Mommy, look at the man in the moon!” Davey exclaimed, pointing toward the sky
.
“I
can see his
eyes and his mouth
.
I think he’s smiling at me.”

“Yeah, Goofo, he’s smiling just at you,” Danielle said, giving her brother a slight nudge on the arm.

“Come on, you two
.
We have to hurry
.
The presentation is going to start soon
and we don’t want to be late
,” Ann said, suppressing a giggle.

When they got to the corner of Harrison and Montana avenues, they saw a crowd of people congregated outside the front door of the old town hall
, an imposing
three-story
brick
building
.
A man dressed all in black stepped up to
the
podium and grasped a microphone
.

“Testing
.
Testing,” he said
.
At first, his voice came out full of
high
pitched
hissing and static but, after he adjusted the volume, it cleared up
.
“Welcome to Westwood Town Hall
.”
He looked out over the crowd and smiled
.
“I’m happy to see that so many of you have come out tonight
for our tour
.
Westwood Town Hall
,” he said, pointing to the building behind him,
“
was built in 1889 and served as the seat of government for the village
.
It
housed the fire department and jail
.
It has served many purposes since then
.
Bu
t
,” he said
in a
more
somber tone
, “w
e are here tonight to talk about Wesley
.

“Wesley was the caretaker of Westwood Town Hall
for many years
.
He took great pride in his work and, because h
e
lived in a tiny basement apartment
in the building
, he considered Westwood Town Hall his home
.
Unfortunately, i
n 1896, w
hen
Westwood
was annexed to
the city of
Cincinnati,
Wesley
was fired and told to move out
.
His job and his home had been taken away from him.
In deep despair, he hung himself in
the
back
stairway leading to his living quarters. When we go inside for our tour of a truly haunted house,
you will see the small alcove near the cafeteria
that
was his
apartment
.
” He paused to clear his throat.

“
Through the
years, many people have reported having strange feelings when they were in the building. Some experienced feelings of being watched while others felt what they described as‘dryness,’ like dust was being poured over them. Some people said that, at times, they had the feeling that it would be ‘unwise
,
’
” he said, making imaginary quotation marks in the air, “
to enter a certain room at a certain time.

“
There have been many unexplained occurrences in the building since Wesley took his own life.
As most of you know, the town hall has been a center for recreation and community theatre for some time
.
In 1985, the Cincinnati Young People’s Theatre was working on a production of Agatha Christie’s
Ten Little Indians
and the costumes and props for the play were all stored here
.
After each show, the people in charge of those items would carefully put them away
.
However
, when they returned the next day, the costumes were always in disarray and the
props totally
rearranged – in a building
that
was unoccupied and locked all night
.

“
The most frightening of all, however, were the actual sightings of Wesley. One such sighting occurred i
n 1988, after a performance of
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens,
when
two members
of the cast locked up the building and walked across the street to
go to
a Christmas party
that
was being held for members of the production
and the staff
.
When they came back to the parking lot to pick up their car
after the party
, the building and parking lot were dark except for a single spotlight in the parking lot and a small security light visible through the ground floor windows
.

“As they drove away, one of the cast members glanced in his rear view mirror and clearly
saw the figure of a man holding the curtains aside and watching them
.
He told his friend to
turn around
and
tell
him what he saw
.
He described the same thing his friend had seen
.
They were terrified because they had locked up the building themselves and
knew
there was no one inside
.
They sat in the car for several minutes and
eventually
the man, presumed to be the ghost of Wesley, vanished.”

The narrator paused for a moment and looked out at the crowd
.
“Many people believe that Wesley loved his job and he loved the
town hall so much that he simply couldn’t leave it
.
So
, even in death, he walks the halls and stairways, still
looking
out for and taking care of Westwood Town Hall
.
We will now enter the building and I will let you judge for yourself whether or not there is any truth to the story
.
If you suddenly feel cold
or hear a sound
and nobody’s there….”

Ann shivered
.
Had she done the right thing, bringing the kids here or would they have nightmares for weeks
?
Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

“Come on, Mom,” Danielle said, nudging her toward the door
.
“This is gonna be
so
cool!”

“Yeah, Mommy, come on!” Davey pleaded, tugging on her coat sleeve.

Well, Ann thought as they inched toward the door, I guess
it’s time to see a ghost
.

Chapter
20

THAT NIGHT, IN SPITE OF THEIR TOUR
of the haunted house and all the talk about the ghost of Wesley, Danielle and Davey went right to bed with no problem
.
After they
were asleep, Ann
decided to
straighten up the apartment
. As she walked through the living room, s
he
spotted Danielle’s
school
report on the coffee table.
With everything going on, she’d almost forgotten about it.

She picked it up and smiled. Dani had pasted all sorts of Halloween images on the cover, creating a colorful collage. The title of the report was “The Customs of Halloween.” She
sat down on the sofa,
turned the page and began to read the two
page handwritten report.

“When you think of Halloween, what do you think of? Most people think of candy, costumes, scary stuff, witches, ghosts and pumpkins. The holiday we call Halloween started with the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany.”

She
cringed
as she went on to read about the festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead,
when
the Celts believed that the souls of the dead, including ghosts, goblins and witches, returned to be with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires. She read that our custom of trick-or-treating began in Ireland and, when the Irish immigrated to the United States in the 1800s, they brought the custom with them.
“Groups of farmers would go door-to-door collecting food and materials for a village feast bonfire. Those who gave were promised a good year; those who did not give got threats of bad luck.”

“I didn’t know that,”
she
said aloud as she read the last paragraph of Dani’s report,
“The
custom of carving a pumpkin for Halloween also came from the Irish. The custom began with carving a turnip. People would hollow out the turnips and place lighted candles inside to scare off the evil spirits. When the Irish came to America, they discovered the pumpkin and, because it was bigger, we now carve pumpkins instead of turnips for Halloween.”

She
smiled as she closed the report and placed it back on her nightstand. She was so proud of her daughter. As always, Dani had done an excellent job of both researching and writing the report. I can’t wait to tell her how much I enjoyed it, she thought.

She
was heading toward the bathroom for a long, hot soak in the tub when the phone rang
.
She hurried to answer it because she didn’t want it to wake the children.

She picked up the receiver and was surprised to hear her sister’s voice.

“I was worried about you, Ann
.
First, you leave me a message that sounded urgent and then, this afternoon, when I finally get through to you after calling I don’t know how many times, you’re in a hurry and can’t talk.”

“I’m sorry
.
I was going to call you in a little while.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense any longer
.
What’s going on
?
By the way
,
what happened to your
answering machine
?
When I called, the phone rang
and rang
.”

“It broke.”

“Did
he
break it?”

“Marnie, why would you say that
?
No, David didn’t break it
.
Well, not on purpose
.
It was an accident.”

“Like when he broke our mother’s dishes?”

“No
.
Yes
.
I don’t know,” Ann replied
.
“Can we change the subject?”

“I’m sorry
.
I don’t want to argue with you
.
It’s just that I worry about you so
much
.
Your loyalty to David, well, sometimes I wonder why you stay with him.”

“Because I love him,” Ann said
.
“Now, do you want to hear my news or not?”